Campaign signs, ballot position cause for controversy

By SUZANNE MARINO
Staff Writer
MARGATE – On Thursday, March 22 at noon, city clerk Tom Hiltner drew the names for the ballot positions as they will appear for the May 8 City Commission election. The controversy started even before the first name was pulled from the box.
Scott Abbott, a candidate for City Commission, asked Hiltner to recuse himself from the ballot selection process and let another city hall employee draw the names. Hiltner responded that as city clerk it is part of his job.
A number of candidates and their supporters were present when the names were pulled from the box.
Hiltner pulled for the Column A position the team of Maury Blumberg, Carl Smallwood and John Swift. In Column B will be Mike Becker, Scott Abbott and Dan Campbell. In the C column will be Ed McMeekin, who is running solo, and in Column D will be running mates Joanne Kulzer and Burt Federman.
There was grumbling about ballot position, but it was the size of campaign signs that really set off some words. March 22 was also the first day political signs could be placed around the city.
In Margate a candidate seeking office who plans to use signs as part of the campaign must file for a temporary permit to do so. The cost of the permit is $25 for every 10 signs; after the election and the removal of all the signs within 10 days, the permit fee is returned to the candidate. Scott Abbott filed a permit for 100 signs at a cost of $250.
Abbott appeared at the commissioners’ meeting held the same day to complain about the size of other candidates’ campaign signs. Citing ordinance 170-26 on the permit application, which states that political signs may not exceed 4 square feet, Abbott said that he ordered his teams’ signs with that figure in mind.
He was angry that the team of Blumberg, Smallwood and Swift had much larger signs. He got even angrier when he was told that the larger signs along Jerome Avenue at Swift’s Marina were determined to be legal after an interpretation of the sign ordinance by the city solicitor just the day before. The larger signs are permitted on private property where there is a minimum of 50 feet of frontage available, according to the solicitor’s interpretation.
At the pubic session of the Margate City Commission meeting Abbott addressed the sign ordinance and said he took exception to the interpretation and said that all of the candidates should have been privy to an exception to the rule governing size of the sign.
When asked if he had inquired if the 4-square-foot sign was the only permitted size, Abbott answere “No,” saying that he assumed the size listed on the permit was the size permitted.
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